Crime thrillers have a perfect place in the Netflix catalog. At any given time, an indulgent, twisting mystery is proving popular on the streamer’s top ten. This past year, some of the most-watched shows on Netflix have been crime thrillers, including writer Chris Chibnall‘s Agatha Christie’s Seven Dials, the latest installment in Rian Johnson‘s acclaimed Knives Out series, Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery, and not one but two new thrillers from writer Harlan Coben.
Of the two new Coben adaptations that debuted this year, it was the latter that proved the biggest success. Starring Avatar‘s Sam Worthington and Severance‘s Britt Lower, the eight-episode mystery series I Will Find You proved such an enormous hit on the streaming charts that it became one of Netflix’s top ten most-watched English original scripted shows of all time. To many, this was the best of Netflix’s many Coben adaptations, with a central story that proved too alluring to miss.
But of these many Netflix collaborations with one of crime literature’s most prolific voices, which would be the most likely to earn a second season? Thankfully, in an interview with Collider’s Jake Hodges, Coben said, “The one character I could see bringing back would be The Stranger, because that character escapes, and she can drop bombs on new people.” He did admit, “I’ve not really gone more than that sentence I just gave you, Jake,” but that won’t stop fans from rejoicing at the possibility of more from one of Coben’s most delicious mysteries.
Collider Exclusive · 8 Questions · 2 Minutes Which Iconic Fandom Should You Join? Harry Potter · Lord of the Rings · Star Wars · Star Trek
Eight honest questions about how you actually are: what you put on when you need cheering up, how deep you go into the things you love, what you argue about, what you keep on your shelf. Answer them and we will tell you where you belong. Four of the biggest fandoms on earth are taking new members, and they could not be more different from one another.
⚡Harry Potter(Wizarding World)
💍Lord of the Rings(Middle-earth)
⚔️Star Wars(A Galaxy Far Away)
🖖Star Trek(The Final Frontier)
01
What do you put on when you need cheering up? Nobody is brave about this one.
02
How deep do you go into something you love? There is no shallow end here, only different deep ends.
03
What do you and your friends actually argue about? Every fandom has one argument it has been having for years.
04
How do you feel about a room full of strangers? Every one of these comes with a very big room.
05
Where would you rather spend a week? Pick on instinct rather than on budget.
06
What do you believe about people, mostly? All four of these stories have an answer, and they disagree.
07
What is actually on your shelf? Look over at it before you answer.
08
What do you actually want from a story? Eight questions in, this is the one that picks your fandom.
Membership Confirmed Your Fandom Is…
Four of the largest communities on the planet, and four completely
different reasons to belong to one. Here is yours, what it would give you, and the argument you
would be having within a week.
Wizarding World · Books 1997 · Films 2001
Harry Potter
You belong to the fandom that is really about comfort. Hogwarts
works on people because it is a place rather than a plot, and the pull is not the wizard war
so much as the corridors, the food, the weather and the sense that somebody is expecting
you.
You are drawn to belonging, which is why this fandom sorted itself into houses within
about five minutes and has never stopped.
This is the most social of the four, and the one most likely to know which type every
single person in your life would be.
The books are built to be reread rather than analysed, and rereading is exactly what you
do with things you love.
The new HBO series is bringing the whole thing back one book at a time, which means the
arguments are about to start all over again.
Middle-earth · Books 1954 · Films 2001
Lord of the Rings
You belong to the deepest fandom on this list, the one where
somebody has always read further than you and is quietly delighted to say so. Middle-earth
rewards patience more than any other world in popular culture.
You like the sense that the story you are reading is only the visible part of something
enormous, which is precisely how Tolkien built it.
This fandom takes adaptation seriously to a degree that other fandoms find slightly
alarming, and it has good reasons for that.
Your favourite thing about the books is probably the bit that is not action at all,
which is the walking, the songs and the long goodbyes.
Nobody here thinks heroism belongs to the powerful, and the whole story exists to make
that argument.
Star Wars · Lucasfilm · Since 1977
Star Wars
You belong to the loudest and largest tent of the four, the one
where three generations are all watching the same thing and none of them agree about any of
it. That disagreement is not a flaw in this fandom, it is the main activity.
You want something you can share with absolutely everybody, from a six year old to a
grandparent, and this is the only one on the list that really does that.
Nobody argues like Star Wars fans argue, and the argument has been running since roughly
1980 with no sign of resolution.
The pull here is sensory before it is narrative, since it is the sound design, the score
and the look of a used and dented galaxy.
You would be first in the queue, in costume, with strong opinions and a genuinely good
time.
Star Trek · Paramount · Since 1966
Star Trek
You belong to the thinking fandom, the one that turns up for the
argument rather than the explosion. Trek has always been a series of ethical problems in
space, and the people who love it love being asked what they would have done.
You are an optimist in a way that is currently unfashionable, and this is the only major
franchise still willing to say the future might be better.
The best episodes are the ones where nobody fires anything, which is a sentence that
makes perfect sense to this fandom and to nobody else.
Starfleet Academy brought the franchise back to a classroom in 2026, which is
appropriate, because Trek has always been a bit of a seminar.
You would want the conversation afterwards more than the episode itself, and here you
will always find somebody willing to have it.
What Is ‘The Stranger’ About?
Hannah John-Kamen in ‘The Stranger’Image via Netflix
The Stranger was released in 2020 and starred Coben’s most frequent star, Richard Armitage. The series proved one of the biggest hits in the UK during the COVID-19 era, and set the stage for the huge Coben hits to come. The series also featured an electric performance from Hannah-John Kamen as the titular Stranger. Coben “was so pleased with Hannah’s performance” in the series, he admitted in the same interview. A logline of the series reads: “A web of secrets sends family man Adam Price on a desperate quest to discover the truth about the people closest to him.”
The Stranger is available to stream in full on Netflix. Make sure to stay tuned to Collider for all the latest exclusive stories.
